Special elections: Congrats to Myrtle Cole, Lorena Gonzalez

The San Diego City Council has a new member: union official Myrtle Cole, who defeated community activist Dwayne Crenshaw in a special election for the 4th District seat representing the city’s diverse southeastern neighborhoods.

We offer Cole our congratulations — even though we think she should be embarrassed by the tactics she used to win office, especially a grossly dishonest mailer that falsely linked Crenshaw to a crack house. Going forward, we hope that Cole is a better elected official than a candidate.

She would do well to model her stewardship on Tony Young, the council member she succeeds. Young resigned in January to become CEO of the San Diego-Imperial Counties chapter of the American Red Cross after years of capable service that won him admirers throughout the community. Young showed how valuable pragmatic politicians are at City Hall, especially in his two years as council president.

Cole should follow the same path. Her union background and heavy donations from labor suggest she will not be independent. But other City Council members have surprised after taking office. Here’s hoping Cole will be the latest.

As for the other lawmaker newly elected in Tuesday’s special election, Assemblywoman-elect Lorena Gonzalez, we also congratulate her — and we very much hope she doesn’t follow in anyone’s path.

A former labor executive, Gonzalez has the drive and intelligence to be a constructive force in Sacramento from her first minutes on the job. As we noted when we endorsed Gonzalez, there is a long list of issues on which we are at odds. But more than any local Democratic state lawmaker in recent memory, Gonzalez appears fiercely devoted to revving up the San Diego and the California economies. She is not a reflexive defender of onerous regulations and is open to reform of the California Environmental Quality Act. Like Gov. Jerry Brown, she’s intrigued by the potential benefits of hydraulic fracturing, the improved energy exploration process that could create tens of thousands of well-paying jobs and vast wealth in the Golden State.

Gonzalez’s priorities appear to fit the 80th Assembly District that she will represent. Southern San Diego, Chula Vista, National City and San Ysidro have struggled for years. Having a representative in Sacramento who is devoted to job creation and economic growth is just what the 80th AD needs.

We say “appear to fit” because of course there is a chance that Gonzalez will end up just another cookie-cutter Democrat who goes along with union power plays, is indifferent to the detrimental effects of regulations and high taxes, and inexplicably doesn’t think it’s a big deal that California has high unemployment and extreme poverty. It’s hard to believe how little effort Assembly Speaker John Pérez and Senate President Darrell Steinberg have devoted to helping the state’s economy.

Gonzalez sounds like a different kind of Democrat. We shall see — but we’re hopeful.